e.V.'s ☠Underground☠

eV's Underground

2013/11/27

HIM a.k.a. His Infernal Majesty, are a metal + hard rock band, based in Helsinki, Finland that began life in the early 1990's as a Black Sabbath cover band. Over time they developed a sound somewhere between goth and doom metal initially and later the doom sound incorporated more of a stoner metal edge. Love them or hate them, they are a major inspiration for e.V.'s Underground. The show's producer tripped over them and their vocalist while searching for a Lee Hazlewood song, Summer Wine, on Youtube. And the rest is history. So, every year, on (or near) the birthday of their frontman, as a nod to that formative inspiration, we have a show featuring almost nothing but HIM's music. They have an impressive back catalogue, so this isn't hard to do.

What the heck is HIMOIN, you ask? Al alternative to HEROIN, that is legal and healthy. :)

SIG:AR:TYR

PAUL CHAIN

Paul Chain, seminal guitarist & pioneer of Italian doom metal co-founded the occult rock outfit Death SS, with Steve Sylvester, then went on to do solo work and various after leaving Death SS for religious reasons.

H.I.M.

HIM (a.k.a. His Infernal Majesty) needs no introduction to regular listeners of e.V.'s Underground but for those who don't know them they veer between doom metal with heavy stoner metal influence and goth metal and goth rock. They strated life as a Black Sabbath cover band - so here they are covering Sabbath's Hand Of Doom." This show fesatures some live stuff they did on a German TV show back in 1998.

Hannu Lepisto

Hannu Lepisto is a Helsinki-based singer-songwriter, guitarist and drummer, writing across a number of genres, from pop to rock to country to folk. A good description would be a cross between Lou Reed, Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen - if they could sing! Sometimes he sounds little like Jyrki Linnankivi with the 69 Eyes.

2012/09/05

Rumours of Iconcrash's demise are unfounded according to the Finnish 5-piece darkwave electrorockers' frontman, Jaani Peuhu, who has just announced an upcoming solo project on his new webpage. From the videoblog he has posted, at least one song will feature kantele Finland's national instrument, a type of zither.

Iconcrash entered the competition to represent Finland for the 2012 Eurovision song contest (see interview below), placing in

the top 6 finalists but failing to go further when Peuhu suffered a vocal setback due to a severe flu. Their Eurovision entry, "We Are The Night" was released as a single and charted in the Finnish top ten. It is also available as part of the 'Inkeroinen' Special Edition CD.

2012/08/28

"This world that we have wasted has kept us very well
When science now is sacred, who will save us from ourselves?" - -Ké 'Strange World"

HIM, Finland's rock and metal emissaries, are set to do a cover as their upcoming single release. 'Strange World' (orginally by Ké) will be the opening track on HIM's soon-to-drop greatest hits compilation, "XX – Two Decades Of Love Metal".

Artwork for HIM's XX – Two Decades Of Love Metal"

The single will be released September 21st, & the album on October 26th. The band heads to the studio in September with Kai "Hiili" Hiilesmaa at the production helm, and Tim Palmer at the mixing boards for their next studio album, "Tears On Tape" which is slated for release in March of 2013. (hat tip to Luis Ullan for having Ke's original version on his favorites)

Lyrics to the single and the album track listing are posted below.

'Strange World ' - originally by Ké

Verse: Is this our last chance to say all we have to say?Hiding here inside ourselves we live our lives afraidSo close your eyes and just believe in everything your toldCause in this land of great confusion it's easy to give up controlChorus:Strange world - people talk and tell only liesStrange world - people kill an eye for an eyeStrange world - dream one-day we'll see the lightStrange world - believe and everything will be alright

Verse:And this is the place where everything begins and ends againNo secrets left to find no seven deadly sinsThis world that we have wasted has kept us very wellWhen science now is sacred who will save us from ourselvesChorus:Strange world - people talk and tell only liesStrange world - people kill an eye for an eyeStrange world - dream one-day we'll see the lightStrange world - believe and everything will be alright

Verse:Strange world people talk sometimes I wonder whyStrange world people kill still no-one hears their criesStrange world burn these thoughtless tears out of my eyes, eyesStrange world people talk and tell only liesStrange world people kill an eye for an eyeStrange world dream one-day we'll see the light, ahh, ahhStrange world people kill and people hate andPeople talk and people kill - and still I wonder wonder why, why(Lyric source: : LetsSingIt - Your favorite Music Community)

2011/12/23

It is with a heavy heart that e.V.'s Underground reports that founder, frontman, principal songwriter & lyricist for blackened-doom metal masters "Woods of Ypres", has died as a result of a car accident, near Barrie, Ontario. He was 31.

The very talented Gold was pretty much of a modern day renaissance man - a multinstrumentalist (drums, guitar, vocals) and frontman, an accomplished lyricist, who ran his own independent record company, (Krankenuhaus), mixed his own albums, and who taught English in Korea and Kuwait for a spell to pay down debts he incurred making all but the upcoming album, "Grey Skies and Electric Light" (produced when Woods was finally picked up by Earache Records earlier this year).

Gold exhibited a dark, wry sense of humour in his lyrics (check out Wet Leather), which have been compared to Type O Negative, as well as penning a blues song about going overseas to pay off debts (see below). Along with his regular twitter account, he maintained one for David Yprez, a tongue and cheek shot at gossip columnist accounts, where he took caustic Petez Hilton-like aim at Woods of Ypres, claiming "I hate that band!", and posting bad reviews and TMZ-esque pics. Woods of Ypres blogs were filled with his sense of humour.

He was hard working, kind, and very well thought of by folks at CKCU (here at e.V.'s Underground and also Crossing Boredom) and he will be sorely missed. :-(